Jazz Articles about Ronnie Cuber

About Ronnie Cuber

Building a Jazz Library

Ronnie Cuber (1941-2022) made his mark on the jazz world as a versatile and muscular baritone saxophonist. Born in New York on Christmas Day 1941, he started on tenor saxophone but switched to baritone at 17, attracted by the vacant chair in Marshall Brown's Newport Jazz Youth Band (which also featured lifelong colleagues Eddie Gomez and Michael Abene). He grew from sideman to leader to icon over half a century of hard-blowing hard work. Cuber always gave full value ...

Album Review

Eddie Palmieri: Vamonos Pa'l Monte

Read "Vamonos Pa'l Monte" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
May 17, 2026

A reader may come upon a poster entitled “Highlights of the Jazz Story in the USA." One is labelled the Peter von Bartkowski Edition and it dates from 1987. It is, so to speak, a family tree of jazz, with all the strengths and weaknesses of the genre. Still, to poke about is to get someone's version of the lay of the land. On first examination, it is not clear that Latin Jazz even shows up, but ...

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Liner Notes

Grant Green: The Main Attraction

by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
October 30, 2025

During his brilliant career as one of the best producers in the music history, Creed Taylor (born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on May 13, 1929) has worked with some of world's greatest guitarists: from Barry Galbraith (1919-1983) and Mundell Lowe, who took part in the Creed Taylor Orchestra albums (Lonelyville, Shock!, Ping Pang Pong) for ABC-Paramount in the late Fifties, to smooth jazz virtuoso Steve Laury, who was signed to CTI in 1995. In between, Creed produced memorable albums ...

Album Review

Steve Gadd, Eddie Gomez, Ronnie Cuber, WDR Big Band: Center Stage

Read "Center Stage" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 22, 2022

Mixed emotions must underline this review. Center Stage, featuring bassist Eddie Gomez, drummer Steve Gadd and baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber with Germany's superb WDR Big Band conducted by Michael Abene, was recorded in Cologne in January and February 2022. Sadly, Ronnie Cuber passed away in October, shortly after the album was released. If this was Cuber's last hurrah, it thunders loudly above the rooftops, as his solos (on each of the album's nine numbers) and melodic passages ...

Radio & Podcasts

Ronnie Cuber, Oscar Peterson, Stan Bock & Morgan Faw

by Joe Dimino
November 6, 2022

We begin the 775th Episode of Neon Jazz with Kansas City's native son and saxophonist Morgan Faw joined by his band The Flame with the song “Watson Family BBQ" off 2022 album It Takes a Village. From there, we pay tribute to baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber. As the episode unfolds, we discover interesting songs and stories from Beverley Church Hogan, Ezra Weiss and Tim Fitzgerald. In between, we hear legends Oscar Peterson and Wes Montgomery. It all comes to a ...

Album Review

Ronnie Cuber: Live At Montmartre

Read "Live At Montmartre" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
July 7, 2018

Of all the musical instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the mid-19th century, the baritone saxophone remains the least played. Harry Carney persuaded Duke Ellington to use the heavy, cumbersome instrument and it became a distinctive part of the band's sound. Others who have played the baritone saxophone include Cecil Payne, Pepper Adams, Serge Chaloff and--for reasons that remain obscure--Lisa Simpson (perhaps she welcomed the challenge). Gerry Mulligan and the Swede Lars Gullin gave the instrument a distinctive, laid-back, specifically ...

Album Review

Ronnie Cuber: Infra-Rae: Ronnie Cuber Meets The Beets Brothers

Read "Infra-Rae: Ronnie Cuber Meets The Beets Brothers" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
February 23, 2012

It is easy to forget an elder statesman such as the magisterial Ronnie Cuber, who continues to give commanding performances on his baritone saxophone. The absence of a sense of history clouds successive generations, who will honor young masters like Brian Landrus but forget the ancestors. The great tones from the bass end of the saxophone family would be nothing without men such as Harry Carney, Gerry Mulligan, Cecil Payne, Pepper Adams, and of course, Cuber. The saxophonist, who was ...